Doon’s sanitation workers set Monday deadline after cabinet fails to address demands

PIONEER EDGE NEWS SERVICE/Dehradun

The Rashtriya Safai Karmachari Mazdoor Union set Monday as the deadline for the State government and district administration to respond to seven long-pending demands of sanitation workers of the Municipal Corporation of Dehradun (MCD). Union president Sonu Khairwal told The Pioneer that no decision was taken on the workers’ demands in Friday’s cabinet meeting and the union will now wait till Monday for any communication from the government or administration. “We are waiting till Monday to see if there is any response from the government or the administration. If nothing happens, we will decide our strategy from Monday,” he said.

The seven demands include implementing the MCD board’s April 29 resolution approving an Rs 800 per day honorarium hike for environmental workers (sanitation workers), paying temporary workers for July 2026 at the revised rate and immediately recruiting 715 sanitation workers approved by the civic body. The union is also seeking equal pay for equal work, regularisation of workers by changing the cut-off year from 2018 to 2024, restoration of abolished posts in the permanent environmental workers’ cadre by amending the 2015 staffing structure and sanctioning of 10,000 permanent environmental worker posts for urban local bodies across Uttarakhand.

Khairwal said that the union would submit a memorandum to the Dehradun district magistrate seeking action on the demands. He said that the workers were considering a work boycott, dharna and hunger strike soon if the issues remained unresolved. “We do not want to take such steps, but if our demands are not addressed, we will have to decide on a course of action,” he said. Sanitation worker Karan Kumar said that rising living costs had increased the financial burden on workers while their income had not increased proportionately. “We have families to support and the government should understand our situation and fulfil our demands,” he said. Kumar said that workers did not want to disrupt civic services but could be forced to take action if their demands continued to remain pending.